Sight is merely the ability to recognize one's surrounding. On the other hand, it might be considered such visions. Is there more to it than just that? Is sight knowledge? Can a blind man see? Can the sighted be blind? Furthermore, who sees more, a blind man or a sighted man? Does one not see because they choose not to or because they simply cannot? The phrase "to see" has many different meanings. "To see" can have the interpretation of having the ability to know or to understand and it could also be based on the ability to be physically sighted.
In Oedipus The King, many characters are distracted by the physical world, which causes them to be blinded by the most obvious of truths. In Oedipus The King, Sophocles uses blindness as a motif. Oedipus, the main character, could not see the truth. Teiresias, the blind seer, "saw" it plainly. Jocasta, Oedipus" wife and mother, was also blind to truth of Oedipus" identity. In addition, Laius, Oedipus father, was blind to think that he could cheat destiny with simply mortal actions. The blindness in Oedipus The King is an effective contrasting technique used by Sophocles to influence the actions of many of the characters in the play, but it is around Oedipus in which it is centered.
In the opening of the play, Oedipus is faced with a crisis that displays his destructive characteristics. Oedipus displays his arrogance and ignorance when a procession of priest, peasants, and children come to ask him what may be done to alleviate the terrible plague which afflicts the city of Thebes. Instead of sending a messenger to the people of Thebes, he comes to hear their problem directly: "I thought it wrong, my children, to hear the truth from others, messengers. Here I am myself- - you all know me, the world knows my fame: I am Oedipus" (392, 6-8). This role is an extension of the heroic part that Oedipus plays in rescuing the city from the Sphinx.
